The Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, a annual hockey tournament being held in Malaysia took place this year from 6th May 2010 to 15th May 2010. India and South Korea were declared as joint winners as the weather gods didn’t show the mercy to let the finals take place for more than 6 minutes.
History of the tournament :
The Sultan Azlan Shah cup is named after the ninth Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King) of Malaysia, Sultan Azlan Shah, an avid fan of field hockey. The first tournament was conducted in 1983. It was started as a biennial tournament. But since 1994 it is conducted on an annual basis with a few exceptions when the tournament didn’t happen due to various reasons.
The first Sultan Shah cup in 1983 was won by Australia. The second and third places went to arch rivals Pakistan and India respectively.
India in Azlan Shah cup:
India and Pakistan along with the hosts Malaysia have been participating consistently in the Azlan Shah cup since 1983. India has not had a continuous run of form in the tournaments.
In the 1st edition, India could only finish in 3rd place.
But, in the second edition of the tournament in 1985 itself India proved its worth by winning the Azlan Shah Cup beating the hosts Malaysia in the final. Pakistan and Spain finished in 3rd and 4th place respectively.
In the third edition in 1987 India fared very poorly and could not even get a podium finish. West Germany were the winners and Pakistan runners.
But in the 4th edition, India regained the cup defeating Pakistan in the finals.
But again India proved its inconsistency the 5th edition by not finishing on the podium. Such has been the form of India in all these years of the Cup’s history.
But for the last few years starting from 2008, India has been showing a consistent form when it comes to Azlan Shah Cup alone. In 2008, a Junior India side coached by A.K.Bansal with only very few senior players made it to the finals surpassing everyone’s expectations and eventually losing to the champions Argentina by a golden goal.
In 2009 the Indian team lead by Sandeep Singh won the Azlan Shah cup after 14 years(last won in 1995) by defeating Malaysia in the finals. That was a huge boost to the team which was lacking in confidence and was showing poor performances.
Again in 2010, the Indians played very well beating even pre-tournament favourites & World Champions Australia and also Arch rivals Pakistan in the league stage . They reached the finals with the maximum points among the teams. In the finals they were scheduled to play against the Asian Games winner South Korea. But the match was called off due to incessant rains and so India shared the cup with S.Korea.
In all, India has finished as
Winners – 5 times (1985,1991,1995,2009,2010*)
Runners - 1 time (2008)
3rd - 4 times (1983,2000,2006,2007)
* – Trophy shared with S.Korea
Future of Indian Hockey :
The future of Indian hockey looks bright with many skillful youngsters taking up to the game and also the fan base has been constantly on the up posing a dangerous threat to Cricket in the future. The administrators of Hockey should learn from the cricket administrators(exceptions being Lalit modi & co.) to take the game back to its golden period where Indians were feared and also unbeatable (also untouchables).
Hoping to see an Indian team on the Gold medal podium in Olympics soon. Chak De India !!!
‘Sonu’ Somesh
